It’s almost a given that every time one stands in front of a room full of cops to outline the programme details for the next two days of our Brake & Tyre Watch training exercises, you know you are facing 80 or so cops who are thinking: “What can these mlungos teach us?” After all, we are all civvies and they cops. They must know more than us.
“Ok, so what is a slack adjuster?”
officials are divided into 4 or so teams and each group is taken by a team leader to each station which is manned by an expert from our partner companies.
One or two hands go up. “OK, so what is a brake booster?” One or two hands go up. “And what is a load sensing valve?” Same two hands go up. “And how do you test whether the ABS is working?” No hands go up. It’s then that the field is levelled and we’re out the starting blocks heading towards two wonderful days of training where the initial scepticism transforms into magnificent camaraderie that builds a dynamic team unified in purpose – to get unroadworthy rigs off our roads for the safety of all.
Brake & Tyre Watch is all about road safety and road safety can be fun. It’s actually quite fun being alive don’t you think – and staying alive while using the roads is quite easy. All you need do is obey the rules of the road. Of course, you should also have a driver’s licence that has been earned rather than bought. And there’s a couple of other things like having a roadworthy vehicle. It’s the latter that Brake & Tyre Watch concentrates on – and for good reason.
While we take the subject matter extremely seriously, we make sure the knowledge in passed on in a fun and interesting way – as the accompanying pictures show. We’re all on the same side with the same objectives. It’s not a ‘them’ and ‘us’ scenario which is so often played out on the roads.
We are building teams – a partnership between society and the cops for the good of all and to improve safety on our roads. Salute to all! Up Team!
Download the full report of the Brake & Tyre Watch Beaufort West 2018 below.
View the full report here – DOWNLOAD
